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My friend was telling me about a habit in the Spanish culture (I'm not sure if it's done elsewhere as well) of leaving the avocado seed inside when making guacamole. The claim is that if you leave the seed inside the guacamole, something in the seed prevents the guacamole from browning.

I'm a little skeptical - I thought that the browning was due to oxidization. If that's the case, then I don't see how a seed could help in preventing oxidization. Am I missing something? Is this true, or just a myth?

voithos
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2 Answers2

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You're correct - it's a myth, as is adding something acidic to it like lemon juice--see explanation here. As you said, what causes it to brown is the oxidation, and that's just exposure to the air. If you wrap a cut avocado (or guacamole) in plastic wrap so there's no air space between the wrap and the avocado, then it will stay green longer than areas where air is getting to it.

Flimzy
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franko
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This is not an old wives tale. Everyone knows that oxygen turns the guacamole brown. I have read everywhere that some chef did an experiment with a light bulb and the guacamole did not turn brown around the light bulb thus he concluded that it worked the same way as the pit..Wrong! If people would actually tried the pit trick instead of reading some crackpot ideas they would see that the a couple pits in the bottom keep it from turning brown. Oxalic acid is in the pits and absorbs the oxygen which turns the guacamole brown.

jeff
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